Do you really need three hours at the airport in the early morning hours?

I never even thought of what time we'd need to be at the airport leaving Orlando. Thank you for this post! So if our flight is at 6:55am, we'll be taken to the airport at what, 3am? Holy smokes. Last time we went, we stayed off site and had a rental... lol and did the standard 2 hours before, and had no issues (thankfully)
 
If one has nerves of steel and can predict the TSA lines in advance (or how far they go back into the public area) one could easily arrive less than 2 hours without issue at MCO. We always try for that 2-2.5 hour window and the longest we've waited for a flight was 1 hour at the gate. Once just on the 2 hour mark I was nervous we'd not make it through in time, but did so to the gate about 20 minutes prior to boarding.

Watch as well as the cheaper US airlines are woefully understaffed at their check-in counters for luggage drop-off so that will add time prior to even being able to line-up for the TSA security checks.
 
I had just spoken to a DME agent this week and she was confused by my suggested pick-up. Flight departs at 2:10pm and they want to pick me up at just after 9am. She is like, you should be getting picked up at 11.
 
Solved this. We will stay overnight at an airport hotel and get an extra 1 or 1.5 hours of sleep. Getting picked up at 2:35 AM for a 7AM flight is not my idea of fun.For our March Break trip we will do the same. We are leaving a day later as I was able to book the flight on points and staying again at the airport the night before. With the 25% discount on park tickets, we will just leave our things at Bell services and have an extra part of a day to enjoy Disney. The hotel inside the airport was more than $400.00 so I found one with a shuttle and booked with my "Dream" AM points. Switching all new points over to Cash rewards after this.
 


Anyone know if the DME follows the rules for International (4 hours early) or Domestic (3 hours early) if your end location is in Canada, but you're connecting through the States? We live in Edmonton, so one of the best flight options for us is to connect through Minneapolis. So do they view that as a flight to Minnesota or Canada?
 
fallonkendra said:
Anyone know if the DME follows the rules for International (4 hours early) or Domestic (3 hours early) if your end location is in Canada, but you're connecting through the States? We live in Edmonton, so one of the best flight options for us is to connect through Minneapolis. So do they view that as a flight to Minnesota or Canada?
Click to expand...
DME only looks at what your destination is and i highly doubt they care if it's a connecting flight or not so my guess would be they'll follow the International (4 hours) BUT like most of my answers --this is MY thought pattern which should be verified :P
 
fallonkendra said:
Anyone know if the DME follows the rules for International (4 hours early) or Domestic (3 hours early) if your end location is in Canada, but you're connecting through the States? We live in Edmonton, so one of the best flight options for us is to connect through Minneapolis. So do they view that as a flight to Minnesota or Canada?
Click to expand...

It was a few years ago, but I had a flight that connected in the US (and continued to Canada) and was still treated as an international flight (i.e. the pick up was four hours before flight time). Things may have changed, but I suspect that it will be a pick-up that is four hours ahead of flight time.
 


fallonkendra said:
Anyone know if the DME follows the rules for International (4 hours early) or Domestic (3 hours early) if your end location is in Canada, but you're connecting through the States? We live in Edmonton, so one of the best flight options for us is to connect through Minneapolis. So do they view that as a flight to Minnesota or Canada?
Click to expand...

Yup. Sadly they still pick up four hours ahead, even though it's not necessary
 
fallonkendra said:
Anyone know if the DME follows the rules for International (4 hours early) or Domestic (3 hours early) if your end location is in Canada, but you're connecting through the States? We live in Edmonton, so one of the best flight options for us is to connect through Minneapolis. So do they view that as a flight to Minnesota or Canada?
Click to expand...
to add a wrinkle, you can always just pick a domestic flight with the same-ish departure time and supply DME with that and they will pick you up at the 3 hour mark. I always look for a flight that gets me to the airport when i want (which is an hour EARLIER so i don't panic the whole time, but I'm wierd like that :P )
 
Thanks for the responses everyone! My actual flight is just an Orlando to Minneapolis, and then we have a layover and switch planes before flying to Edmonton. I really hope they don't pick us up 4 hours early!
 
fallonkendra said:
Thanks for the responses everyone! My actual flight is just an Orlando to Minneapolis, and then we have a layover and switch planes before flying to Edmonton. I really hope they don't pick us up 4 hours early!
Click to expand...

Unless it is booked as two separate tickets, they still consider it a flight to Canada and an international ticket.
 
My scheduled time for pick-up for the 7:00AM flight was 2:35 AM. By staying at the airport hotel, we can leave WDW around supper and have a couple of extra hours sleep. The last night would have been a write-off anyway if we had to be out of there by 2:30. I am hoping we can now sleep in until nearly 4. Still going to be a very long day as our final flight to the east coast arrives after midnight.
 
Canadian Girl said:
My scheduled time for pick-up for the 7:00AM flight was 2:35 AM. By staying at the airport hotel, we can leave WDW around supper and have a couple of extra hours sleep. The last night would have been a write-off anyway if we had to be out of there by 2:30. I am hoping we can now sleep in until nearly 4. Still going to be a very long day as our final flight to the east coast arrives after midnight.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity (because I'm mildly obsessed with flights at the moment) what is your flight plan. I assume you're flying from Orlando to Toronto? That must be one heck of a layover in Toronto before your flight to the east coast. I don't know why airlines book people like that. It's just cruel.
 
Yes. A long layover. Luckily we have close friends in Toronto we spend the day with. Otherwise it would be awful.
 
Donald - my hero said:
to add a wrinkle, you can always just pick a domestic flight with the same-ish departure time and supply DME with that and they will pick you up at the 3 hour mark. I always look for a flight that gets me to the airport when i want (which is an hour EARLIER so i don't panic the whole time, but I'm wierd like that :P )
Click to expand...

We do that all the time. We give them info for another flight so we get picked up a bit later. ;)
 
fallonkendra said:
Thanks for the responses everyone! My actual flight is just an Orlando to Minneapolis, and then we have a layover and switch planes before flying to Edmonton. I really hope they don't pick us up 4 hours early!
Click to expand...
Just give them the Minneapolis flight when you book DME, and it will be 3 hours.
 
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